As we evolve towards less government, let's give consensus a try.
Not the so-called consensus found in statements like, “99% of scientists say vaccines are safe and effective.” That fake consensus is actually public relations (i.e. advertising, i.e. propaganda, i.e. lies from professional liars). The fake consensus can persuade innocent, overly trusting people; however those who question the justifications for major public policies and dig down to the facts have and will save us from all kinds of heart-breaking, expensive-to-fix mistakes. For example, Questioners like Rachel Carson (Silent Spring) and Dr. Frances O. Kelsey (thanks to her, thalidomide was not licensed in the US).
Consensus is used by numerous corporate and not-for-profit organizations as a way to avoid the pitfalls of “Majority Rules.” (Remember, a lynch mob is an example of Majority Rules gone bad.) Policies made without consensus can cause a lot of problems to a community or a nation – just look at the majority view, which lasted thousands of years, that a woman’s place was only in the home. Another flawed paradigm was Might Makes Right, by which the winner of a war could enslave the conquered nation.
Consensus (when it’s achieved correctly) is a better process for governance than voting. I learned how Affinity Groups work when I joined the Abalone Alliance (early 1980s) to blockade the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant before it went online.
What a revelation it was to discover that getting everyone’s agreement to a policy or action meant that the minority objections were valuable – they could be crucial for finding a workable, fair plan.
And occasionally a person would still have objections to the group’s tentative proposal but would “stand aside,” i.e. quit blocking consensus, because they saw that their concern wasn’t as important as moving forward.
Achieving consensus takes more time at the start, but usually avoids a lot of conflict later.
Are you familiar with collective intelligence systems? We can have a conversation with a million people at once. That million people can turn into a magical being almost. A wise, creative, being. Not by allowing it to vote, but rather by allowing it to speak. We can make what Tim Urban calls in his book, SUPER GENIES 🧞♀️
You can do confidence scores with swarms. You talk to them like a normal person. But get wise and creative answers. We need to build the systems for this kind of consensus. We have a rough version built. But it was expensive ($100k) and we really need an ecosystem. A platform. A new network state where people who want to fix our corrupt systems meet to make new ones.
11. Strict adherence to the US Constitution and the rule of law.
12. Required civics and American history classes for all those American citizens who vote.
13. Sanctuary cities are no longer allowed or funded by US taxpayers. A moratorium on all immigration for five years. All subsidies for illegal aliens are no longer allowed or funded by US taxpayers.
14. Green cult projects, no longer funded by US taxpayers.
15. Reinstate the draft and require all those reaching the age of 18 one year of mandatory military service.
16. Ban all MRNA technology and end all gain of function research.
17. Term limits for all government representatives will be implemented and mandatory. Ban lobbyists from DC. No elected officials are allowed to invest in the stock market.
18. Any government official found guilty of taking money from China, any other foreign nation or engaged in any other pay for play illegal activity will receive imprisonment for life.
19. All whistleblowers must be encouraged to bring evidence forward regarding any fraud or malfeasance within government without any fear or repercussions.
20. All government officials must take an oath swearing loyalty solely to this country and must adhere to the U.S. Constitution. If ever found guilty of not living up to this oath, a mandatory life sentence in prison will result and which is not pardonable by any president.
You are fighting a losing battle as no government will ever give up its power to the people. If they ever did, then most people would come to realize that government is no longer needed.
Government is always controlled by humans and human nature never changes. You will always get corruption, centralized slavery and a gang of power hungry mongrels operating from the certain knowledge that no one is watching them.
You could then program machines to run the government but that also fails as it is humans that have to program the machines. It the machines started thinking for themselves, their root thinking would still evolve from their human programmers.
Humans on average do not want to corrupt and be the enemy of civilization. The ultimatum game, iterated prisoners dilemma, and evolutionary biology show us over and over that most humans (over 95%) want to collaborate over corrupt. It is only a small portion of people that want to rip off their neighbor.
Government won’t give up its power any more than the music industry gave up its power to Napster, or the centralized news organizations like CNN gave up their power to podcasts or YouTube or substack, or the dollar gave up its power to Bitcoin. Decentralization and transparency dissolves power.
Your pessimism is misguided. There is a way. And the way is yes to a place where government is no longer needed. But there are steps in between.
Do you see a path there? Or is nihilism just the default attitude on the way down?
Freedom of speech is the Trojan horse that brought us"freedom to lie." All freedoms must have limits or they will destroy us. Freedom to lie sells freedom of speech to those with the deepest pockets who then deny it to anyone whose speech exposes their lies.
Try this on for size. The universal natural law that has governed the innocent for over 10 million years, and the law I have chosen as the sole law governing my life, can be articulated in 6 sentences as follows: "One's life is one's responsibility in its entirety. Any conceivable innocent act one can perform in the pursuit of one's happiness is one's absolute inalienable right. These include the 5 rights of property of INNOCENTLY acquiring, possessing, using, defending and disposing of any item of property except another human being. 'Innocent' means not harmful to others except in defense. A crime is any act of harm by force or fraud by anyone against the innocent or their property. It is the responsibility of the criminal to make his or her victim(s) whole again, to the extent possible, by a process of restitution."
That lists all possible human crimes, all possible human rights, lists the responsibilities of everyone and defines the word 'innocent'. It is a simple combination of common sense and the Golden Rule, it is intuitive and can be taught to small children by example. It simply means self-government.
What about the possibility of returning to the universal natural law by which innocent humans lived for their entire existence from the first cave men down to the present but by which criminals
How can we get there from this corrupted cesspool? We cannot just close our eyes and wish for it. We need a tool to control our governments again. One that exists outside of centralized control. Like this:
We need to unwind the government encroachment into civil society that began before 1776, when it was largely monarchical. Since that time it has grown exponentially to the point that most people just assume that government belongs in every area and aspect of life when it categorically does not. I go to town halls and I just want to cross nearly every item off the entire agenda. I want to tell government they shouldn’t even be in that business, that civil society and the private sector not only could do a much better job, but it is a job that rightfully belongs in the private sphere. At one time care for the poor was in the private sphere. There was no welfare state or “public assistance” and the job was done by churches and commmunities and private individuals. The government effectively put all private parties out of business, they muscled their way in because they did not want the competition for allegiance. That is just one example. How do you work this idea into the 10 Commandments. The Government works for the People not only isn’t strong enough, in one sense the idea helped create the situation we find ourselves in. Speaking personally, I want the government to maintain the Rule of Law, I want minimum laws, and I want national defense. That’s it!
Personally I think the only way to reform it is to make it much, much smaller. As long as it is so massively huge it can never be transparent or accountable and therefore can’t be reformed. A big part of this is the fault of the people but so many have become dependent on government or apathetic as to also be intransigent. You can’t reform a weed into a beautiful plant. It just has to be pulled up or die. As it is the only way for it to die is for it to kill the host.
As we evolve towards less government, let's give consensus a try.
Not the so-called consensus found in statements like, “99% of scientists say vaccines are safe and effective.” That fake consensus is actually public relations (i.e. advertising, i.e. propaganda, i.e. lies from professional liars). The fake consensus can persuade innocent, overly trusting people; however those who question the justifications for major public policies and dig down to the facts have and will save us from all kinds of heart-breaking, expensive-to-fix mistakes. For example, Questioners like Rachel Carson (Silent Spring) and Dr. Frances O. Kelsey (thanks to her, thalidomide was not licensed in the US).
Consensus is used by numerous corporate and not-for-profit organizations as a way to avoid the pitfalls of “Majority Rules.” (Remember, a lynch mob is an example of Majority Rules gone bad.) Policies made without consensus can cause a lot of problems to a community or a nation – just look at the majority view, which lasted thousands of years, that a woman’s place was only in the home. Another flawed paradigm was Might Makes Right, by which the winner of a war could enslave the conquered nation.
Consensus (when it’s achieved correctly) is a better process for governance than voting. I learned how Affinity Groups work when I joined the Abalone Alliance (early 1980s) to blockade the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant before it went online.
What a revelation it was to discover that getting everyone’s agreement to a policy or action meant that the minority objections were valuable – they could be crucial for finding a workable, fair plan.
And occasionally a person would still have objections to the group’s tentative proposal but would “stand aside,” i.e. quit blocking consensus, because they saw that their concern wasn’t as important as moving forward.
Achieving consensus takes more time at the start, but usually avoids a lot of conflict later.
Are you familiar with collective intelligence systems? We can have a conversation with a million people at once. That million people can turn into a magical being almost. A wise, creative, being. Not by allowing it to vote, but rather by allowing it to speak. We can make what Tim Urban calls in his book, SUPER GENIES 🧞♀️
Ever watch this? https://youtu.be/pwNId_vuwPM?si=C0hhY1av-6Uu3rOW
You can do confidence scores with swarms. You talk to them like a normal person. But get wise and creative answers. We need to build the systems for this kind of consensus. We have a rough version built. But it was expensive ($100k) and we really need an ecosystem. A platform. A new network state where people who want to fix our corrupt systems meet to make new ones.
#11 MP,s must not act like children.
and be held accountable for their words and actions
I’ll add in ten more below.
11. Strict adherence to the US Constitution and the rule of law.
12. Required civics and American history classes for all those American citizens who vote.
13. Sanctuary cities are no longer allowed or funded by US taxpayers. A moratorium on all immigration for five years. All subsidies for illegal aliens are no longer allowed or funded by US taxpayers.
14. Green cult projects, no longer funded by US taxpayers.
15. Reinstate the draft and require all those reaching the age of 18 one year of mandatory military service.
16. Ban all MRNA technology and end all gain of function research.
17. Term limits for all government representatives will be implemented and mandatory. Ban lobbyists from DC. No elected officials are allowed to invest in the stock market.
18. Any government official found guilty of taking money from China, any other foreign nation or engaged in any other pay for play illegal activity will receive imprisonment for life.
19. All whistleblowers must be encouraged to bring evidence forward regarding any fraud or malfeasance within government without any fear or repercussions.
20. All government officials must take an oath swearing loyalty solely to this country and must adhere to the U.S. Constitution. If ever found guilty of not living up to this oath, a mandatory life sentence in prison will result and which is not pardonable by any president.
You are fighting a losing battle as no government will ever give up its power to the people. If they ever did, then most people would come to realize that government is no longer needed.
Government is always controlled by humans and human nature never changes. You will always get corruption, centralized slavery and a gang of power hungry mongrels operating from the certain knowledge that no one is watching them.
You could then program machines to run the government but that also fails as it is humans that have to program the machines. It the machines started thinking for themselves, their root thinking would still evolve from their human programmers.
Humans on average do not want to corrupt and be the enemy of civilization. The ultimatum game, iterated prisoners dilemma, and evolutionary biology show us over and over that most humans (over 95%) want to collaborate over corrupt. It is only a small portion of people that want to rip off their neighbor.
Government won’t give up its power any more than the music industry gave up its power to Napster, or the centralized news organizations like CNN gave up their power to podcasts or YouTube or substack, or the dollar gave up its power to Bitcoin. Decentralization and transparency dissolves power.
Your pessimism is misguided. There is a way. And the way is yes to a place where government is no longer needed. But there are steps in between.
Do you see a path there? Or is nihilism just the default attitude on the way down?
Freedom of speech is the Trojan horse that brought us"freedom to lie." All freedoms must have limits or they will destroy us. Freedom to lie sells freedom of speech to those with the deepest pockets who then deny it to anyone whose speech exposes their lies.
Try this on for size. The universal natural law that has governed the innocent for over 10 million years, and the law I have chosen as the sole law governing my life, can be articulated in 6 sentences as follows: "One's life is one's responsibility in its entirety. Any conceivable innocent act one can perform in the pursuit of one's happiness is one's absolute inalienable right. These include the 5 rights of property of INNOCENTLY acquiring, possessing, using, defending and disposing of any item of property except another human being. 'Innocent' means not harmful to others except in defense. A crime is any act of harm by force or fraud by anyone against the innocent or their property. It is the responsibility of the criminal to make his or her victim(s) whole again, to the extent possible, by a process of restitution."
That lists all possible human crimes, all possible human rights, lists the responsibilities of everyone and defines the word 'innocent'. It is a simple combination of common sense and the Golden Rule, it is intuitive and can be taught to small children by example. It simply means self-government.
Too bad the real world requires Rules 3. In a sane world, Rule 6 assumes Rule 7. “Love God and love your neighbor” would simplify everything.
What about the possibility of returning to the universal natural law by which innocent humans lived for their entire existence from the first cave men down to the present but by which criminals
How can we get there from this corrupted cesspool? We cannot just close our eyes and wish for it. We need a tool to control our governments again. One that exists outside of centralized control. Like this:
https://open.substack.com/pub/joshketry/p/how-to-fix-corrupt-government-in?r=7oa9d&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
We need to unwind the government encroachment into civil society that began before 1776, when it was largely monarchical. Since that time it has grown exponentially to the point that most people just assume that government belongs in every area and aspect of life when it categorically does not. I go to town halls and I just want to cross nearly every item off the entire agenda. I want to tell government they shouldn’t even be in that business, that civil society and the private sector not only could do a much better job, but it is a job that rightfully belongs in the private sphere. At one time care for the poor was in the private sphere. There was no welfare state or “public assistance” and the job was done by churches and commmunities and private individuals. The government effectively put all private parties out of business, they muscled their way in because they did not want the competition for allegiance. That is just one example. How do you work this idea into the 10 Commandments. The Government works for the People not only isn’t strong enough, in one sense the idea helped create the situation we find ourselves in. Speaking personally, I want the government to maintain the Rule of Law, I want minimum laws, and I want national defense. That’s it!
How do we get there from this corrupted cesspool? We need a big change
Personally I think the only way to reform it is to make it much, much smaller. As long as it is so massively huge it can never be transparent or accountable and therefore can’t be reformed. A big part of this is the fault of the people but so many have become dependent on government or apathetic as to also be intransigent. You can’t reform a weed into a beautiful plant. It just has to be pulled up or die. As it is the only way for it to die is for it to kill the host.
can't reach swarmacademy.ai
jcomeau@lapazhome:~$ ping swarmacademy.ai
PING swarmacademy.ai (108.160.195.147) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 147.195.160.108.in-addr.arpa (108.160.195.147) icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable
Yeah sorry we are getting it back up. Credit card for the forums got switched.